Legend:

* - New Addition

^ - Moved Up

v - Moved Down

Rules:

The LiverKick.com rankings are living rankings that have existed in one form or another since 2009. After the initial rankings were tabulated, they moved on from there. If one fighter beats a fighter ranked above them, they take their place. If a new fighter is introduced, that means that said fighter is ranked above whomever he beat, moving everyone else down.

Fighters can drop or move up in the rankings without losing or winning, depending on the division in general. After 12 months of inactivity, or if a retirement is announced, fighters can be removed from the rankings. These rankings are also at our discretion.

If you follow kickboxing you know the one fight that everyone has been asking about; GLORY Heavyweight Champion Rico Verhoeven vs. Badr Hari. Badr Hari may not be a regular in the realm of high-level kickboxing right now, but he's the lone holdover of a generation of heavyweights that defined the sport from the heyday of K-1.

Hari, never a K-1 World Grand Prix Champion -- in part thanks to his volatile temper leading to a DQ loss in 2008 -- was seen as the heir apparent to the heavyweight throne, only for FEG's K-1 to go bankrupt and the international kickboxing scene changed forever. Since then, GLORY has emerged as the world leader in the sport, albeit in a scaled-back form compared to the opulence of FEG's K-1.

Since then both Hari and Verhoeven have had very different paths. Hari chased paydays from rich sheikhs and warlords where he could find them while Verhoeven competed with the best of the best, transitioning from being a tall, awkward kid to an unstoppable force in heavyweight kickboxing. Outside of the ring Hari has been plagued with legal issues thanks to his temper and for a while it looked like he would never, truly, find a way back to fighting the best.

Hari has remained a public figure, his every indiscretion stealing international headlines all while being accentuated by a fairly rabid social media following. For Verhoeven, this became the fight to make, the fight that made sense. All of the old heroes had retired; Semmy Schilt, Peter Aerts, Jerome Le Banner, Ernesto Hoost and Remy Bonjasky.

With wins over Gokhan Saki, Daniel Ghita, Errol Zimmerman and Benjamin Adegbuyi it was all starting to feel a bit "academic" for Verhoeven. He is the best and all of the challengers that are lining up are talented individuals, but what can they bring to the table?

An issue that arises with a dominant champion is that it's difficult for other stars to flourish. Adegbuyi, in any other generation, would be a huge star, but now he's been defeated twice by Verhoeven, as have Daniel Ghita and Errol Zimmerman, making it lonely at the top for Rico, who has only suffered one errant loss in China to Anderei Gerasimchuk while Rico's wife was in labor and his mind was elsewhere.

Speculation has run wild for the past few months, smaller promoters have tossed their hat into the ring with very public, very unrealistic offers to host the fight, but there was always going to be one promotion where it would go down; GLORY. GLORY has worked with Verhoeven and Hari's team and now it's official. According to a report from Gareth Davies, the fight is happening in December in Germany.

As for the stakes? Simply pride.

GLORY just confirmed Rico Verhoeven vs. Badr Hari will not be a title fight. It will be three rounds.

Ha! Just when you thought you were done having to listen to me (@dvewlsh / @LiverKickdotcom) ramble on about Kickboxing, you were wrong. This time I'm joined by a very special guest by the way of GLORY 10 Middleweight Champion Joe Schilling as we discuss his big victory at GLORY 10 as well as how he felt going into the tournament and how his life has changed after it. Joe also weighs in on the GLORY 11 card coming up this week and that his next fight will be at GLORY 12 New York.

Whew, what a weekend, right? Glory 3 Rome happened and it was pretty incredible. Giorgio Petrosyan continued his reign of dominance in the world of 70kg Kickboxing and shows no signs of relenting, but fighters like Sanny Dahlback and Davit Kiria came from out of nowhere and impressed the world. Listen to Rian Scalia (@rianscalia) and myself (@LiverKickdotcom / @dvewlsh) as we discuss the latest and greatest in Kickboxing news.

Also note that we've changed software, so going forward the Podcast will be using the player below. You can still download the episode by right clicking on the player and choosing download. You can also subscribe by clicking the button on the left and it should be up on iTunes shortly. See, we listen to your feedback.

After perhaps one of the most legendary careers in the sport of kickboxing, the trailblazing Peter Aerts has finally hung up the gloves. Aerts, originally promoted to be retiring at GLORY 13 wasn't too pleased with being pushed into retirement when he didn't quite feel ready for it just yet. Aerts has been aware of father time since at least 2012 when he first started planning his retirement, with the bout against Tyrone Spong being his "BeNeLux retirement."

Since then it has all been about winding down and while Aerts was scheduled to participate in the BLADE.2 event in Japan on August 1st, yesterday at a press conference in Japan he instead sent along a video announcing his retirement. He had sustained a few injuries after his last fight with Ernesto Hoost and has had difficulties getting back into fighting shape and recovering, which has pushed him to finally retire. He will now focus on training fighters and building up the next generation of kickboxers.

For me, personally, it is tough to see the end of the Aerts era considering he was the first fighter that really caught my eye as a kid. After watching Aerts' first K-1 World Grand Prix victory I was hooked for life. That being said, it is all about safety and health. Aerts has a family and a gym right now and leaves behind a legacy as one of the all-time greats of the sport. My favorite memory of the past few years will still be Aerts making it to the finals of the 2010 World Grand Prix against Alistair Overeem and having that feeling that anything could happen, that Aerts could win it one last time. That was the kind of magic that Peter Aerts brought to the ring with him.

Over the last few months there have been various reports that four-time K-1 World Grand Prix Champion, 2012 Glory Grand Slam and Glory Heavyweight Champion Semmy Schilt will no longer be fighting. The rumors were first centered around his participation in future tournaments, as after his victory on New Year's Eve in 2012 he stated that he would not participate in future tournaments, although it was quickly brushed off. Since then there has been talk about him fighting Gokhan Saki with the Heavyweight title on the line, but there has also been talk of Schilt no longer fighting at all.

Since last night LiverKick has received numerous reports from reliable sources that Semmy Schilt is retired, effective immediately. The decision was apparently not an easy one for the Hightower, who was instructed to retire from his medical team due to a heart condition that was discovered. This marks the retirement of what may be the greatest Heavyweight Kickboxer of all time, with five big tournament victories under his belt and numerous world championships. Schilt was also a pioneer in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, making his debut in Pancrase in 1996, fighting in both the UFC and PRIDE over the course of his career.

Today in Los Angeles at a press conference streamed live to the world via Facebook GLORY announced that they would be creating a Women's Super Bantamweight division, the weight at which Tiffany Van Soest fights. It makes sense considering the signing of Van Soest. They've announced a Super Bantamweight Grand Prix, which Van Soest vs. Hasshass is the first quarterfinal bout in said tournament. The second fight will be at GLORY 31 Amsterdam as Isis Verbeek takes on Iman Barlow.

The addition of Barlow is perhaps the other biggest bit of news as she can easily be considered one of the best female fighters in the world. In fact, Steven Wright ranked her as the #2 pound-for-pound woman in the world right now. GLORY has built a ten-woman division, with future match-ups being Zoila Frausto vs. Daniela Graf and Amel Dehby vs. Ji Waen-Lee, while Ferial Ameeroedien vs. Irina Mazepa will serve as the reserve fight.

There are some solid names in there for the division and hopefully this takes off in a big way. You can watch the full announcement below.

We're thrilled to announce a new division with a Grand Prix tournament, tune in LIVE!

This weekend saw the GLORY World Series put on their Glory 2 Brussels event in Brussels, Belgium, headlined by Remy Bonjasky vs. Anderson "Braddock" Silva. The return bout of Bonjasky was a big deal, as was Gokhan Saki taking on Mourad Bouzidi and a slew of other big matches. Join Rian Scalia (@rianscalia) and myself (@LiverKickdotcom / @dvewlsh) as we run through the Glory World Series event as well as look at next weekend's K-1 Final 16 and the inherent lack of hype surrounding it.

This weekend was huge for Kickboxing. Firstly, It's Showtime promoted It's Showtime 57&58, featuring some very important fights and putting on an incredibly entertaining card. That wasn't it, though, was it? On top of that, Glory Sports International announced -- from that show -- that they had purchased It's Showtime and will absorb It's Showtime's staff and fighters into the Glory team, shaking the Kickboxing world up like never before. Rian Scalia (@rianscalia) and myself (@dvewlsh / @liverkickdotcom) talk you through what was a historic weekend for Kickboxing.

Things have been up-in-the-air for the bad boy, Badr Hari, as he has been in jail awaiting sentencing for quite a while now. It appears that the courts have decided what to do with him, and if you are a Badr Hari fan, it does not look good for him right now. The charges to be levied against the former K-1 fighter who recently attempted to switch gears to professional Boxing before returning to the Kickboxing ring in May is that of Attempted Manslaughter.

If you are wondering about the kind of evidence they have against him, they have DNA evidence from a towel that they found and there are also nine open cases against Badr Hari right now. Of course, the most serious is the Attempted Manslaughter of Koen Everink in July, and it looks like with the evidence that they have and his past history, things might be looking bleak for Hari. The court is going to attempt to put Hari away for ten years, which would effectively mean the end of Badr Hari's career as a Kickboxer, Boxer or anything else in the world of combat sports. [Source]